Air France 2015 Annual Report Download - page 5

Remaining master
of its own destiny
Frédéric Gagey, Chairman and Chief Executive Ocer
of Air France and Pieter Elbers, President and
Chief Executive Ocer of KLM, share their analysis.
Frédéric Gagey
Pieter Elbers
Air France-KLM has published a positive set of
results which are encouraging for the future.
Within the framework of Perform 2020, which
havebeen the most eective levers?
Frédéric
Gagey /
Within the framework of the Transform
2015 plan, the eorts realized by
AirFrance on unit costs in recent years enabled a
very marked improvement in the company’s
nancial situation. Furthermore, our commercial
teams have successfully slowed the unit revenue
decline by implementing action plans across all
markets. Lastly, while the decline in the oil
price signicantly reduced the fuel bill and
created a favorable environment, we pursued all
ourinitiatives to improve the company’s
competitiveness within an uncertain economic
and geopolitical environment. We took a major
step forward in 2015 when, following a
turnaround process lasting four years, Air France
generated a comfortably positive operating
margin. It is thanks to the company’s sta and
their commitment and collective eorts that
wehave been successful on this front. They
should be proud. Our current objective is to
improve this result to reinforce the company’s
cyclical resilience and enable it to invest and
pursue its growth.
Pieter
Elbers /
For KLM’s part, we continued to grow
and posted positive nancial results.
Most of our action in 2015 was directed at
rearming our three strategic goals: reducing
costs, investing in our future and transforming
our organization. Within the framework of
Perform 2020, we implemented measures
throughout the year on all three fronts and began
to benet from the rst positive results: our costs
are lower, our productivity is up – thanks, in
particular, to the new collective agreements –
andour investment in the customer experience
and products is bearing fruit. These rst tangible
results combined with a renewed spirit
throughout the organization show that we are on
the right track.
The Group’s move up-market is paying o,
aswitnessed by the signicant increase in levels
of customer satisfaction and internationally-
recognized awards. How do you plan
tomaintain this momentum to consolidate
yourleadershipposition?
P. E. At KLM we make the dierence by creating
moments that truly touch our customers’
hearts. To further support its growth, in 2015
KLM stepped up its investment in customer
services and products and plans to accelerate this
in 2016. Fleet renewal will continue this year with
sixteen new aircraft set to be phased in to our
eet. Also noteworthy is the deployment of our
World Business Class. In 2015, 60% of our eet
was equipped with new “full at” seats while,
in2016, this gure will reach 80% of our
intercontinental eet. Furthermore, we are
supplying our customer-facing sta with digital
tools, better equipping them to care for our
passengers. These eorts are being rewarded by
asteady increase in levels of customer
satisfaction, as measured by the Net Promoter
Score. Our passenger appreciation targets for
thenext year will thus be even more ambitious.
F. G. Since the rst Air France ight equipped
with the new long-haul cabins to New York
in June2014, their comfort has been receiving
accolades from customers. These new cabins,
which are amongst the industry best in class, are
currently being deployed in our Boeing 777 eet.
We have thus decided to pursue this strategic
move up-market for our products and services by
installing the new cabins on our Airbus A330s as
of the end of 2017. We have also renewed our
medium-haul oer on departure from Paris-
Charles de Gaulle. Another key factor in customer
satisfaction is ight punctuality. For the past year,
we have been redoubling our eorts to improve
our operational eciency. This work is now
paying o and we are proud to have been the best
AEA (Association of European Airlines) carriers
on this metric several times during 2015.
AIR FRANCE-KLM
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AIR FRANCE-KLM
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